First day of school

On the first day of class, before they could even personally meet, Professor Akihiro Zen had been dead set on hating Lunamor and making the rich kid’s life as difficult as possible…

It all started a month ago, second week of August, to be exact… when Math Professor Akihiro Zen had walked into the lecture hall for his introductory class on the day that spelled the beginning of our story:

Well…

Where to begin?

Let’s just say one, Math professor had been so royally pissed off so early in the freaking morning (and it hasn’t even struck 9!) that he had to actually resist the ridiculous but tempting urge to stomp all the way in like some crazed titan.

Because that morning, just as he had checked his cell phone before leaving his apartment as his daily habit, the Dean somehow, for some reason, had felt it extremely necessary to send a couple of professors, including him a VERY IMPORTANT message–bold and italic included–about a certain student:

An Italian girl who was apparently very rich, like insanely rich (no big deal, Hiro had thought with a dismissive scoff), would become a part of their class for this school year.

(Being half-American, half-Japanese himself, Hiro could have cared less about what country his students came from, their socio-economical background, he didn’t give a damn about too as long they understand his lessons and please stick it in their heads that he was their professor, their educator and was not one to be flirted or to mess around with.

So… NO BRIBES.)

At first, he had thought that this was probably a case of racism or maybe the kid’s family has a thing for security, maybe safety or privacy purposes or something along the lines since hey, hostage taking happens in real life, right?

Right.

But… no–when the Dean carefully but pointedly explained to each and every single one of them (all of the professors involved) that Ms. Cassandra Lunamor (the fact that the Dean of a damn university had actually addressed and spoken about one of their students so respectfully even it was only in text message was so freaking laughable) would be ‘taking classes with much reluctance’, the Dean’s words, not his.

Okay, fine.

The message goes entirely like this:

‘It has been considered to be necessary for the Academy of Athena’s Sacred Tree to present Ms. Lunamor with a real degree rather than an honorary one, but she is a very busy person so would you please do your best to accommodate her since she would be taking classes with much reluctance?’

At first, Hiro had thought it was a joke.

No like, for real…?

What is up with that?

…That is, until two of his friends, both professors at the same academy but on under different subjects suddenly asked him about it and if he received the same message as well.

And well, Hiro is definitely not laughing now.

Personally asking all the professors involved to accommodate this… this ‘Ms. Lunamor’ had been a guise of formality as far as everyone was concerned, because even though the Dean had so carefully crafted the message as a request, in person, he had made it pointedly clear to all of them that they were expected (read: required) to bend over backward for Ms. Lunamor if necessary, courtesy of the long–and very demeaning–talk they just had over an hour ago.

Hiro knew that he would not like her.

Scratch that.

He knew that he would hate this Cassandra Lunamor.

Any student who seriously expected this kind of special treatment (they were in college, for god’s sake!) was, as far as Hiro was concerned, is nothing but an entitled spoiled brat who should go back to primary school and start learning some basic fucking manners.

Because in his humble opinion, these types of kids seriously needed to be welcomed to the real world where you earned things based on the work that you actually did–based on your own merit instead of being shielded by mommy and daddy’s money!

Hiro decided that while he may not be able to openly disobey the Dean’s wishes (he still needed his job, thank you very much), but there was no way he would make life easy for a spoiled brat who thinks college is supposed to be a breeze. Either the rich kid did the work and passed the class… or she didn’t–period.

And as he stormed inside the lecture hall, Hiro suddenly felt like glaring at everyone who was now glancing a bit nervously at him.

What are they looking at anyway?

Seriously, what the f…?!

Then after a beat, he immediately realized that the students obviously realized that he was in a bad mood… which was a horrible first impression, by the way. And Hiro instantly felt guilty at the worried looks he received from his students, not to mention, he felt childish and kind of embarrassed for acting like this in the very first day of class.

That was very unprofessional too.

Hiro mentally reminded himself that only one student was to blame for his (very) bad mood. The rest of the class was completely innocent… it’s really not their fault they’re going to have a spoiled brat for a classmate.

…Sucks to be them.

So, Hiro plastered a small smile on his face even though all he wanted to do in that moment was to chuck his cell phone at someone (preferably Lunamor or even better, that simpering Dean...!) as he put his things down in order on the front desk before wiping at his black-framed glasses with his white handkerchief as he tried to even his breathing and calm down.

He checked the time briefly.

9:54 am.

There was still some time left to go before the class could officially begin. He glanced around again, noting that there weren’t that many empty seats left at all, but that was to be expected–most of the students in AST Academy usually show up on their first day of class.

And from what he could gather, there seemed to be more men in the class this time around than there normally was and when he finished mentally counting the students and yes, everyone’s already here early birds, the lot of them really that was when he decided to start handing around the class syllabus.

Hiro fixed his glasses again before the clock strikes 10 AM… and that was when he beamed and finally decided to introduce himself:

“Good morning! Welcome to GECMMW, otherwise known as Mathematics in the Modern World. My name is Professor Akihiro Zen… but please just call me Professor Hiro or Professor Zen–and yes, before anyone starts asking, I’m half-Japanese. Now, I hope that all of you know your next schedule and classroom afterwards?”

There were a few nervous looking students who couldn’t meet his eyes at that, but nobody said a thing.

His smile widened, now a touch amused at their reactions, “Very well… I’d like to spend a moment going through the course expectations. Say, how many of you have already purchased the textbook for this class?”

Majority of the class raised their hands.

Hiro grinned, fixing his glasses as he nodded in approval, “Well good for those who already got it… and to those who haven’t purchased it yet, my advice is that you may want to get a copy real soon because I’ll start assigning activities by the next lecture and you will all have your very first assignment due next week. We have a lot to cover in a very short time, after all! For that reason, I’m not fond of taking attendance.”

He can see some students looking so visibly pleased at the idea of not being expected to come to class… he almost laughed.

Clearing his throat, Hiro continued:

“So… if you guys can afford to be late or miss my classes but still manage to get your work done on time and be able to pass the quizzes and exams, then good for you, we’ll get along just fine! However, let me be clear: I will not be the one to do extra work so the rest of you can just slack off in my class. So please, don’t beg me to give you guys any makeup lectures, quizzes, tests, or any sort of notes in my class…”

There was already a hand raised in the air.

He already had an idea what the question is.

Hiro nodded, still smiling, “Yes, if you have a valid reason for missing the lecture and can prove it with an excuse letter or something, I’ll do my best to assist you. I’m not that inconsiderate.”

Some of his students chuckled.

The hand dropped, a bit sheepishly.

Hiro gestured to the syllabus then, feeling his smile becoming even more relaxed, more genuine the more he focused on what he has to say… he’s even beginning to forget the reason why he’d been angry in the first place.

“Now, if you all take a look at your syllabus, the first page has included all of the course’s basic information and the ones we’ll be covering up for our lectures. You have my name in case you forget and my email address if you ever need to contact me–just please don’t ever try to reach out to me in my other social media accounts or I will block you.”

Most of his students actually bursted out laughing at that and Hiro grinned mischievously, before continuing a beat after the laughter died down into a fit of giggles:

“My office hours and office location are listed there as well. So… if you guys ever need to talk to me or something after class, just reach out to me in advance if you somehow need a meeting outside of those hours. Now, are there any questions so far?”

“…This subject is for children.”

A few shocked, almost scandalized gasps echoed throughout the suddenly dead-silent lecture hall. It was so quiet that you could have heard a pin drop outside the room as all of the other students turned as one to look at the girl who had been sitting at the far end of the lecture hall with stares that was ranging from shock, confusion, amazement and some clear disapproval. That remark was completely uncalled for.

And Hiro already knew that girl was Lunamor.

Her features were entirely foreign, striking.

To be honest, Lunamor looked kind of pretty just… intimidating, though Hiro had never seen someone look so pale, he almost assumed she had albinism or something and those eyes–

Her eyes were such a startling, vivid color of dark gray. The color of the purest silver, so clear, so piercing in its intensity. Hiro had almost taken a step back because it honestly looked like the kid was glaring at him or maybe it was because of the faint, dark circles underneath her eyes that made her look like that… he wasn’t really sure.

No, Lunamor is not pretty.

…She’s scary, Hiro decided.

He didn’t need to let her know that, however.

His practiced smile remained frozen in place as he calmly stared at the girl who hadn’t even bothered to raise a hand, “That’s not even a question but I’m sorry you feel that way, Miss…?”

She scoffed, completely unrepentant, raising a gloved hand–huh, looks like it’s made of real leather… wait a minute. Why is she even wearing gloves inside the classroom? –to push her whitish or pale (what’s the word again… platinum… blonde?) hair off of her shoulder.

No words had been given but such a simple movement practically screams ‘attitude’.

Hiro’s eyebrow twitched.

…The audacity of this brat.

“I don’t ‘feel’ like this subject is for children. Because it is. We have already taken a similar subject like this during senior high, after all.”

And Hiro had to consciously restrain himself from actually scowling at her–because he was so right it’s not even funny, Lunamor was just another spoiled brat–but he kept his smile on even though all he wanted to do, in that one moment, was to throw his syllabus straight at such an absurdly pretty face.

Beauty is wasted on a brat like her.

“Well, that’s too bad, miss,” he shrugged far too casually, “…I guess you just have to take that one up with the people who actually decided on the curriculum or something.”

Ha, take that!

She raised an eyebrow at him, obviously sensing his blatant sarcasm while some of the students let out nervous chuckles, but thankfully she said nothing to that, so Hiro cleared his throat as he quickly moved on from this oh-so delightful… conversation he was having before she decides to add some more and waste everyone’s time.

“Now, see… this is going to be the subject schedule for the entire period,” Hiro carried on, gesturing to one part of the syllabus, forcefully tearing his gaze from Lunamor’s as he returned to addressing the rest of the class: “Due dates for all major assignments or projects and the dates for every test or quizzes we will be having can be found right here so I won’t be accepting any excuses for not knowing any of this information beforehand.”

Fortunately, Lunamor didn’t speak anymore for the rest of the initial lecture… though Hiro kept an eye trained on her general direction just in case she decided to pull another rude stunt like that again.

And Hiro thought that was the end of it for today…

Ha.

Yeah no, of course not!

Because since some higher-being finds it funny to mess with his life for shit and giggles… when the class period ended, just as Hiro was about to leave the lecture hall for his next class, Lunamor suddenly walked right up to him.

Hiro can feel his glasses sliding down his nose, wincing when he realized that the two of them were at eye-level and seriously, why the hell does this kid have to be so damn tall?

She’s not even wearing heels!

On hindsight, it was probably pointless to complain about something as trivial as that, childish even but he really didn’t care, he was freaking 5’9 and proud of it too! But at this point, Hiro was just too annoyed at her, and he knows he was just mentally lashing out.

Still, he had to be professional here…

So, he tried to smile politely at her even when he just wanted nothing more but call her off for the rude comment earlier. “Ah, I’m sorry but do you need something Miss…?”

“Lunamor,” she supplied blandly, her tone somehow hinting that she already knows that he knows who she is, and Hiro felt his eyebrow twitching in annoyance again–geez, what an arrogant brat… “All of the assignments must be directly emailed to me.”

Without bothering to wait for him to object or agree, she suddenly turned away from him like that was the end of discussion as Lunamor walked straight out of the door, leaving one math professor gawking behind her like a koi fish.

…but looking back on it now, Hiro still can’t understand how he had gone from hating to actually liking someone as rude and detached as that woman.